In Elliott v. Donegan, a federal district court in New York held that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act does not warrant the dismissal of a defamation claim where the plaintiff’s complaint did not “foreclose[] the...more
8/25/2020
/ Allegations ,
Communications Decency Act ,
Defamation ,
Dismissals ,
Immunity ,
Interactive Process ,
Internet ,
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) ,
Media ,
Section 230 ,
Sexual Assault ,
Third-Party ,
Websites ,
Willful Misconduct
As we have frequently noted on Socially Aware, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act protects social media sites and other online platforms from liability for user-generated content. Sometimes referred to as “the law...more
Often hailed as the law that gave us the modern Internet, Section 230 of the Communication Decency Act generally protects online platforms from liability for content posted by third parties. Many commentators, including us...more
A federal district court judge refused to grant summary judgment to the copyright owners of the Star Trek franchise in the infringement suit they brought against the team behind a fan-made, crowdfunded prequel to the original...more
1/23/2017
/ Copyright Infringement ,
Copyright Ownership ,
EU ,
Instagram ,
Internet ,
Mobile Apps ,
Personal Data ,
Snapchat ,
Sponsored Ads ,
Star Trek ,
Summary Judgment ,
Yelp
2016 has been a tough year for a lot of reasons, most of which are outside the scope of this blog (though if you’d like to hear our thoughts about Bowie, Prince or Leonard Cohen, feel free to drop us a line). But one possible...more
As we have noted before, if you want to increase the likelihood that your website terms of use are enforceable against users, you need to do two things. First, you need to display the terms to users in a conspicuous way, and...more
Social media has upended a number of industries. Is Wall Street next?
Facebook is getting into the video game live-streaming business....more
6/10/2016
/ Arrest ,
Facebook ,
Google ,
Internet ,
Marketing ,
Offensive Language ,
Personal Brands ,
Snapchat ,
Social Media ,
Twitter ,
UK ,
Websites
The Newspaper Association of America has filed a first-of-its-kind complaint with the FTC over certain ad blocking technologies.
Is it “Internet” or “internet”? The Associated Press is about to change the capitalization...more
Congress has taken a step toward protecting consumers’ rights to post negative reviews on websites like Ripoff Report or Yelp with the introduction, by Representative Darrell E. Issa of California, of the Consumer Review...more
In This Issue:
- What’s in a Like?
- R.I.P.: The Facebook “Like” Gate
- Facebook Dislikes Fake Likes
- Privacy in the Cloud: A Legal Framework for Moving Personal Data to the Cloud
- Click...more
12/17/2014
/ Advertising ,
Clickwrap Agreements ,
Cloud Computing ,
COPPA ,
Counterfeiting ,
Data Protection ,
EU ,
Facebook ,
Infringement ,
Internet ,
Mobile Apps ,
Social Media ,
Terms of Use ,
UK ,
Websites
Instagrowth. Instagram’s relationship with Facebook is turning out to be mutually beneficial. Since Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion in 2012, the photo sharing platform has passed the 300-million-user mark, surpassing...more
We have written previously regarding the pitfalls of online contract formation, including where website operators fail to implement website terms in a manner that requires users to expressly accept such terms. A recent...more
..Completely liable? A Hong Kong court has found that Google may be liable for defamation based on the words that it used to “auto-complete” a person’s name in a search. In this case, the words that were added implied that...more
“Web scraping” or “web harvesting”—the practice of extracting large amounts of data from publicly available websites using automated “bots” or “spiders”—accounted for 18% of site visitors and 23% of all Internet traffic in...more
7/22/2014
/ Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) ,
Contract Disputes ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Craigslist ,
Data Mining ,
Electronic Spiders ,
Facebook ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Internet ,
Popular ,
Trespass ,
Web Scraping ,
Websites
In This Issue:
- European Court of Justice Strengthens the Right to Be Forgotten
- California AG Offers Best Practices for Do Not Track Disclosures; Crucial Compliance Questions Left Unanswered
- Snap...more
7/11/2014
/ Data Protection ,
Do Not Track ,
EU ,
European Court of Justice (ECJ) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Internet ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Privacy Policy ,
Right to Be Forgotten ,
Snapchat ,
Social Media
Mark Zuckerberg famously stated that the purpose of Facebook is “to make the world more open and connected,” and indeed Facebook, other social media outlets and the Internet in general have brought worldwide openness and...more
In This Issue:
Peering Into the Future: Google Glass and the Law; Ownership of Business-Related Social Media Accounts; Two Circuits Address the First Amendment Status of Facebook Activity; Collaborative Consumption –...more